Starting anew in the Thames Valley

[skeptic2]

Hi,

My wife and I are moving to Henley-On-Thames this weekend, from Essex.

We started birding in November and were very quickly hooked. We outlayed some money on some good equipment and haven't looked back since! It's now our number one activity.

Given that we have only ever seen a winter, I can imagine we have lots of exciting things to see during our first experience of each season, and I am happy that we get to do this in the Thames Valley.

I have scouted out a couple of local spots to me: Warburg Nature Reserve and Dinton Pastures Country Park (Lavell's Lake), but if anyone has recommendations they would be most appreciated.

Thanks!

[rolf]

Welcome to the forum, you have chosen a nice area to live, Henley is surrounded by beautiful countryside, will have a think about places to go.

I see you have some nice optical equipment, I'm in to cameras, but we have a couple of ardent digiscopers on the forum.

PS. A good area for Red Kite spotting, they come down quite low there.

[Chocky]

Hi Skeptic2. Welcome to the forum. We look forward to your input.

[Blue Jay]

Hi there Skeptic2. Good to have you with us . This is a nice friendly site

[skeptic2]

Hi rolf, Chocky, Blue Jay,

Thanks for your welcome.

rolf:

I bought a Nikon Coolpix 4500 and adaptor with my kit. I've used it once or twice. I've got lots to learn birding-wise so the digiscoping is something extra for me right now, something to play with in the quiet periods, but I'm already aiming to get a good camera and telephoto lens, if/when finances eventually permit.

E.g. here are some of my more successful images (scaled down):

Cormorants and Great Black Backed/Lesser Black Backed at Hanningfield Reservoir.


Grey Herons at Hanningfield Reservoir.


Grey Plover at Two Tree Island, Leigh-on-Sea.

[maureen]

Hi there, I'm not too far away from dinton Pastures, there are several other good sites as well, I like the lakes between Crowthorne and Yateley in the blackwater Valley, great for a half day walking and birding.

Nice to see you here, sure you'll like the forum.

Maureen

PS. Worth a visit, not far from you, the old brick kiln at Nettlebed, was used to make the bricks for Wallingford castle.